Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 20:03:52 GMT
Server: NCSA/1.5.1
Last-modified: Fri, 09 Aug 1996 22:56:37 GMT
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<TITLE> Merging </TITLE>

<H1> Merging in a Collaborative Environment </H1>
<p>
<STRONG> Sponsors: </STRONG>
IBM and
<!WA0><A HREF = "http://www.cise.nsf.gov/iris/ITOhome.html">
NSF Information Technology and Organizations Program
</A>
(IRI-9627619)
</p>
<STRONG> Researchers </STRONG>:
<!WA1><A HREF = "http://www.cs.unc.edu/~dewan"> Prasun Dewan, </A>
<!WA2><A HREF = "http://www.cs.unc.edu/~munson"> Jon Munson </A>
</p>
<STRONG> Description </STRONG>:

The need to
<!WA3><A HREF = "ftp://ftp.cs.unc.edu/pub/users/dewan/papers/merge.ps.Z">
merge
</A>
different versions of an object to a common state
arises in collaborative computing due to several reasons including
optimistic concurrency control,
non-WYSIWIS coupling,
absence of access control,
latecomers,
and mobile computing.
Current systems either support restricted forms of merging
or require programmers to completely implement merge procedures.
The hypothesis of this research is that it is possible to
automatically generate a large variety of merge procedures
from high-level specifications of these procedures.

This research is investigating several issues
that must be resolved to establish this hypothesis including
simultaneous merging of an arbitrary number of objects,
merging of user-defined objects,
real-time merging of user-interface objects,
merging in a mobile environment,
abstractions for specifying merge procedures,
and the relationship between merging and other collaboration
functions such as concurrency control.
It is using an experimental method wherein the new concepts are implemented and
used in validation experiments.
If successful,
it will allow merging to become a common operation
in a collaborative environment
without requiring significant application-specific programming.
